c. 1996 Religion News Service
(Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and the publisher of Religion News Service.)
(RNS)-Americans are running scared.
They’re scared of violence, even though crime, overall, is down. They’re afraid of losing their jobs, even though the economy is relatively stable. And they’re afraid of cancer, heart attacks and a variety of other illnesses, even though most of those maladies have a higher rate of successful treatment today than ever before.
Americans also fear emotional and psychological assaults. They are afraid of not being as successful as they hoped. They are terrified of aging. And they are afraid of being alone and unloved.
One thing they are not afraid of is God. He is usually referred to casually-as in”God help us,”or jokingly as in”God’s a woman and she’s ticked off”-or simply in vain, as punctuation to an otherwise uninspiring sentence.
Increasingly I wonder why a nation with the highest church attendance has so little concern about a God most believe created us and could destroy us if he (or she) really did get ticked off.
The God of Jewish, Christian and Muslim theology is a God to be feared. He has little in common with Santa Claus or a smiley face, and stands as a power that can smite or deliver as he sees fit.”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom,”says Psalm 111:10. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments we are reminded to fear nothing and no one but God.
Similarly, the Koran regularly admonishes people of the book to”be wary of the Lord”and speaks of those who are foolish enough to risk God’s judgment.
But instead of standing in awe of the Creator, we live in fear of each other and the worlds we have created.
A few weeks ago I had lunch with a successful executive who confessed that he was afraid of losing his job.”I’m over 50. Who would hire me?”he asked. He told me he was beginning to understand why men who lose their jobs consider taking their lives.
On another day I spoke to a woman who told me she lives in terror of developing breast cancer. She is so debilitated by the fear that she cannot enjoy the love of her family because it only makes her more afraid of dying before they do.
Recently I road home in a taxi with a driver who prominently displayed the Koran. We chatted briefly about his life and beliefs, and finally I asked him a question that had puzzled me for some time.”You seem like a wise and moderate man. Can you explain why the writer Salman Rushdie should be condemned to death for what the Muslim world considers blasphemy?” The driver paused and then said,”Yes, I do understand. But I’m not sure I can explain it so that you do.”You see, in America you seem to believe that freedom of speech is more important than the fear of God. But if you are truly a Muslim, you know better.” I thought about his words for a long time. As a Christian, I may not agree with pronouncing a death sentence on a man for his writings. But if I believe what I say I believe, the fear of God should be more real in my life than anything else.
Whether crime statistics are up or down, or whether it is a bull or bear market, it should matter far less than if I am pleasing God by my life and actions. But I don’t live that way, and neither do most people in what is called the most religious nation on earth.
One of my favorite songs of faith is the old spiritual,”He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we acted as if we really believed it?
We would become more concerned about our own actions than the potential actions of others. We would live as if we realized Someone was watching what we did, even if we knew we would never get caught. And we would spend less time being concerned about what might be slipping through our own fingers and more time standing in awe of the One who holds the whole world in the palm of his hand.
MJP END BOURKE
